The 1979 Fenton ET
In the wake of the 1973 Oil Crisis, it had become very apparent that bigger and domestic was not always better and the buying trends of the public reflected this. Sales of small cars were up significantly and import cars of all different makes began increasing at an alarming rate. No longer were the economy-minded VW Beetles, Toyota Corollas, and Honda Civics the only imports to contend with. Cars like the Datsun Z series, Toyota Cressida, BMW 3 and 5 series, and Mercedes W123 started conspicuously consuming every market from sport coupes to mid size family cars to luxury cars. The virtual monopoly American manufacturers had enjoyed throughout the 1950s and 60s was rapidly becoming a distant memory.
By 1974, FHL was looking into replacement of the 2nd gen Everette Ellston and in the process of analyzing the markets had determined that a failed concept they had played with a decade earlier was becoming a rapidly expanding market. The concept was of course the failed 1962 Fenton SE which had debuted at a time when luxury sport sedans were laughable concept in the face of muscle cars and low fuel costs making such landbarges possible. But with fuel costs skyrocketing and with environmental legislation now in place, the concept was no longer still-born and the BMW 2002, 3 series, and Saab 99 were living, breathing proof. FHL sat on the concept for a few months after greenlighting the Ellston’s replacement but when talks of the Everette Twisp’s replacement emerged the next year and revealed the luxury sport sedan market probably was not a fad, the Fenton “Executive Touring” car (different in name because of the SE’s poor reputation) was to be a reality.
(1979 ET300 GL)
In the normal fashion that FHL started using, the new model – which shared a platform with the Ellston – debuted about a year after its partner in order to grant reprieve from the design and manufacturing mistakes of the early marks. The car that Fenton eventually brought to market was a premium outfitted, rear wheel drive, compact sedan with a fully independent suspension and a V6 under the hood. The base engine was a variant of FHL’s new SOHC 90 degree V6 that had been decreased in displacement from its initial 3.2L application in the Bellevue down to 2.6L. The smaller displacement helped improve fuel economy while a more aggressive cam and high-flow intake kept the performance essentially the same. The result was a car that achieved 26 mpg highway and 19 mpg combined but that still delivered on speed, making it from 0-60 mph in 9.7 seconds. For more premium minded buyers, a smoother, less punchy 3.0L V6 was also offered.
In addition to the sedan model – which came in either 4-door or 2-door – a 5-door wagon model was also produced. This was meant to appeal to more premium family buyers who needed a more fuel efficient car or that wanted a family car that wasn’t also as boring as reading a telephone book.
(1979 ET260 LE)
While trim packages were offered, is perhaps thought of better as a platform on which multiple kinds of vehicles were made. Throughout its run, all engine options were available to the buyer no matter the trim selection, as were indeed most of the optional features. Transmission options were a base 4-speed manual, a 5-speed manual, or a 4-speed automatic. But for the typical buyer’s benefit, the trim packages were still offered if for no other reason than to help reduce manufacturing overhead. The trims offered were:
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Base / No badging: Carried the base engine for the year and no options.
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GS: Grand Sport. 4 wheel disc brakes, 5-speed manual, sport seats, sport tuned suspension***, limited slip differential***, 15-inch wheels
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GL: Grand Luxury. 4 wheel disc brakes, 3.0L V6, 4-speed automatic, fully optioned interior
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LE (only available on wagons): Luxury Estate, 4-speed automatic, upgraded interior, 3rd row seats**
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RS (first offered in 1982): Rally Sport. sport tuned 3.0L V6, 4-wheel disc brakes, 5-speed manual, sport seats, limited slip differential***, aero package*, sport tuned suspension, 15 inch wheels, special RS badging
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Turbo4 (first offered in 1983): turbocharged 2.3L L4****, 4-wheel disc brakes, upgraded interior, special Turbo4 badging
Options Caveats:
*The aero package was exclusive to the RS trim
**Rear booster seats obviously only available on estate models
***LSD and tuned suspension only available on Sport badged models
****As its name would imply, only the turbo 2.3L L4 was offered on the Turbo4 trim.
(1979 ET260)
Options on all models however included:
- Sport front seats
- Luxury seats
- Air conditioning
- Cassette player (1982 onward - replaced stock 8 track player)
- Quadrophonic speaker system
- Power windows
- Power locks
- Digital gauges (1983 onward)
- 15 inch wheels (1982 onward)
- Complete choice of engines and transmissions (exception to Turbo4)
Colors that the ET came in included:
- Gloss Black
- Silver Streak
- Candy Gloss Red
- Bronze
- Desert Brown
- Regal Maroon
(1982 ET300 RS)
Although the ET was introduced into the market during a recession and another fuel crisis, this actually helped its cause. Despite sales of cars being down across the board, the ET’s unique position as an American sport sedan which had better fuel economy than the gas-guzzling late-model muscle cars gave buyers seeking domestic performance an alternative. The ET’s initial sales were nothing impressive – only about 52,000 units in 1979 – but in comparison to other makes, didn’t seem to be incurring the worst of the penny-pinching. The car’s plethora of options also helped rake in much-needed revenue while its lesser luxury and lower price point than Fenton makes of past attracted a whole new class of buyer to the Fenton brand. What was once an exclusive car now seemed attainable – still expensive and prestigious, but attainable.
Sales perked up to 94,000 units in 1980, largely thanks to the energy crisis driving the need for better fuel economy, but dropped again to 81,000 in 1981 and 1982 due to the worst of the early 1980s recession taking hold. However, 1983 and forward showed a resurgence which brought sales up into the 100,000s in 1984 and 1985. The model’s revenue potential prompted Fenton refresh it in 1982 with a whole new look and a brand new multi-point fuel inject system offering much better performance and economy over its original throttle-body EFI. 1982 also brought a brand new trim level, the RS, a purpose-built motorsport package that included FHL’s first use of functional aerodynamics on a car. The front clip had a specially shaped lip and the rear gained a spoiler both of which helped keep the car exceedingly stable at high speeds and reduced its tendency to understeer at its limits.
(1983 ET230)
In pursuit of even better fuel economy, 1983 brought an entirely new FHL engine to the ET. The age of the V8 was dead, at least for Fenton, who had terminated production on their archaic hold-out 4.5L V8 in 1982 along with its last user, the Everette Bellevue. Thus, the V6 was assuming the role of the company’s performance option now with economy being delivered instead by their new SOHC 2.3L straight-4 which replaced the 2.6L V6 in the ET. The new engine was lighter, almost as powerful, and virtually as smooth thanks the addition of a balance shaft.
Furthermore, FHL had been experimenting with new technologies to improve fuel economy throughout the latter half of the 1970s, one of which was turbocharging. The ET became a showcase of this technology with a turbocharged straight-4 engine option which performed remarkably well. An ET with a turbo 2.3L engine could achieve 25 mpg combined and still be as fast as the 3.0L V6 models. There was even associated trim made, the Turbo4, to market it as a sort of highly sophisticated option. And it worked; turbocharged straight-4 models matched the sales of the 3.0L V6 models virtually as soon as it came on the scene.
(1983 ET230 Turbo4)
In the modern day, the Fenton ET is considered a striking and extremely odd case of a manufacturer getting everything right. It came at the exact right time and offered exactly the right things. While most other American cars were wallowing in gluttonous waste, the ET offered buyers fuel economy and performance AND luxury. It was all the more perfectly timed given the flop of the second generation Everette Bellevue and Fenton LE which had cost FHL billions of dollars in reinvestment costs to fix these troubled models. Bankruptcy in the early 1980s would have been very possible for them if it weren’t for the merits of their smaller cars like the Ellston, Twisp, and the last-minute A+ bread winner that was the ET. It is as Lee Iacocca said. How does an American automaker save itself from death? Make small, cheap cars that Americans want to buy.
(1983 ET300 RS)
And that was exactly what the LE was. It was a relatively affordable car that offered performance, economy, and luxury in an era when most American cars were only one of these things at a time, if any of them at all. Iacocca’s own K car posed a stiff competitor to the ET in the premium and luxury markets, particularly the upper class Chrysler New Yorker, but the ET still had one thing that appealed to buyers the K car wouldn’t and that was its rear wheel drive which causes many to regard as the American answer to the BMW E21 and E30. Its similarity is what has also made it a modern cult car with entire enthusiast communities around this one car.
The ET’s innovations and success are also lamented, not in disappointment for what it or FHL was at the time but for what FHL would eventually become. FHL produced this fine machine but then went on to produce some of the blandest, mistargeted, archaic, engineering nightmares in the 1990s due to clinging to their late 1970s and 1980s philosophies of cheap cars – and cars only.
Specifications:
- Wheelbase: 2.54 m (100 in)
- Length: 4.30 m (169.3 in)
- Body style: 2-door coupe, 4-door sedan, 5-door wagon
- Seats: 5
- Transmission: 4-speed manual, 5-speed manual, 4-speed automatic
- Engines: 2.3L L4 (4LA-H23M), 2.3L turbo L4 (4LA-W23MT), 2.6L V6 (6VAB-H26J/M), 3.0L V6 (6VAB-W/H30J/M)
- Layout: longitudinal front engine, rear wheel drive
- 0-60 mph time:
- 9.7 - 7.3 s
- 7.3 s (1983 RS w/ 3.0L V6 and 5-speed manual)
- Top Speed: 194.3 km/hr (121 mph) - 1983 RS w/ 5-speed manual and 3.0L V6
- Fuel Economy:
- 13.2 L/100km (1979 wagon with 3.0L V6)
- 9.4 L/100km (1983 sedan with tubo L4 and 4-speed manual)
Engines
4LA-H23M
Base engine (1983 - )
- All cast-iron; forged internals
- Single overhead cam; 2 valves per cylinder
- 87 mm bore X 96.7 mm stroke - 2299 cc
- Compression: 9.0:1
- Multi-point fuel injection
- 93.9 kW @ 5600 RPM
- 181.6 Nm @ 3600 RPM
- 6200 RPM redline
4LA-W23MT
Turbo4 / optional engine (1983 - )
Identical to H23M variant except as follows
- Turbocharged
- 106.7 kW @ 5200 RPM
- 258.6 Nm @ 2500 RPM
6VAB-H26J
Base engine (1979 - 1981)
- All cast iron; forged internals
- Single overhead cam; 2 valves per cylinder
- 82 mm bore X 82 mm stroke - 2598 cc
- 7.9:1 compression
- Single point EFI
- 90.6 kW @ 5700 RPM
- 185.2 Nm @ 3400 RPM
- 6200 RPM redline
6VAB-H26M
Base engine (1982)
identical to H26J variant except as follows
- Multi-point EFI
- 9.0:1 compression
- 109.9 kW @ 5700 RPM
- 206.4 Nm @ 3700 RPM
6VAB-W30J
Optional engine (1979-1981)
- All cast iron; forged internals
- Single overhead cam; 2 valves per cylinder
- 86 mm bore X 82 mm stroke - 2992 cc
- 7.8:1 compression
- Single point EFI
- 101.3 kW @ 5500 RPM
- 209.1 Nm @ 2900 RPM
- 6000 RPM redline
6VAB-W30M
Optional engine (1982 - )
Identical to W30J variant except as follows
- Mutli-point EFI
- 9.0:1 compression
- 111.8 kW @ 5700 RPM
- 230.2 Nm @ 3200 RPM
6VAB-H30M
Optional engine (1982 - )
Indentical to W30M variant except as follows
- 120.9 kW @ 5700 RPM
- 235.9 Nm @ 3700 RPM
- 6300 RPM redline
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